This invention relates to barbell bars, and in particular multi piece barbell bars designed to be permanently joined into a single bar. The use of barbells with various removable weights is popular as a method of exercise. The barbells typically employed for weight lifting have solid steel bars that are between 60 inches (5 feet) and 86.6 inches (a little over 7 feet) in length. The length of the bars makes transportation potentially difficult, especially for a purchaser who transports a bar in a car. Storage of the barbell bars in retail stores has also been awkward, because the overall length of the bars requires either more shelf space or vertical storage. Multi-piece barbell bars have been developed to ameliorate the problem of transportation and storage. Most of them have been two piece bars, which have either a threaded member and a female receiving member that interlock to join the two bars, or cooperating flanged portions that interengage to form a unitary bar. A problem with these solutions is that the bars tend to rotate with respect to one another, and could potentially come apart, or do not present a smooth, uninterrupted span between their ends. The solid steel bars are also heavy and relatively expensive as compared with a tubular bar.